Spring Break!

Well, not in an American college way but I had a wee spring break last week. I had a week off work to relax, which was lovely. Needless to say, I got crafty!

A few cakes were made including this lovely one from Rachel Allen's 'Bake' book. It's an iced orange cake and I made it one day with lemon and another with orange for some visitors coming down to the cottage. It was yum although it cooked a bit more on the outside, aka borderline deeeeep golden. The icing to cake ratio on this cake is perfectly balanced so I'll definitely keep trying to perfect that edge! :)

I also looked out a mini felt collar I had embellished earlier in the year. I'm still not sure whether to turn it into a necklace or something else! Any ideas welcome...

Card-spiration!

With the beautiful spring weather finally making its long-awaited arrival, it's time to get cracking and crafting! I've been reorganising my craft to-do list to make it easy and accessible and make it work for me. I'll blog about that later but meantime, I had two cards to make and I planned my time thanks to my new system!

The first is a card for a colleague who just had a baby boy. It's a different friend from my previous posts about handmade baby gifts but it sure was a cute coincidence they both had baby boys within a week or so of each other!

The second is an RSVP (as you can see!) to an evening wedding reception. I just wanted to keep it simple.

Both cards feature some lovely craft tape I got in the Pound Shop of all places. I got three rolls for guess how much?! Clue's in the title! ;)

And to the pictures...

Beautiful Things!

We all love to surround ourselves with things that make us happy. For me, it's hubby, dog, family, friends and a great craft stash! My craft stash normally has some sort of Matryoshka element to it and now those cute little Russian dolls are creeping into more rooms in the house! I thought I'd share a photo of our kitchen windowsill which is really wide and perfect for displaying cute stuff. Enjoy!

Oh Baby!

Squee! Yesterday, my lovely husband and I went to see two friends who have just had a beautiful bouncing baby boy. He's three weeks old now and is just perfect in every way! After all the cuddles and fuss, we gave them their gifts including the little mittens I wrote about in the first blogpost of CCC.

What I hadn't shared yet was the bib I handmade for them too, inspired by an idea in Polly Treffry's Freehand Embroidery book. I decided to go nautical so used a red and white background before I appliqued a blue and white boat complete with little flag. They absolutely loved it and it actually matched the wee outfit he had on that day! Yay!

Another thing we did was take lunch. My friend had told me months ago that in her ante-natal class they said if you have visitors then use them! Ask folk to bring in messages if they are coming in the first few weeks/months. It was no surprise, then, when she asked us to take some lunch round for the visit. Happy to help! We made tomato, carrot and basil soup and big, thick door-step sandwiches with homemade egg mayo. We also made a big batch of tuna pasta mayo and left it with then for evening snacking. I was just so happy to be able to help them and they were glad to have minimal fuss guests so it was a big win for both!

Happy crafting, peeps!

Tea for Two!

You might remember my recent post about my lovely mum and dad's 40th anniversary and my idea for a personalised tea cosy for them. Well... It's done! I took some photos before I packaged it up.

I had some issues with the binding on the bottom and had to do it twice. I'm not 100% happy with the final version but hopefully they will love it. I can be very hard on myself sometimes! :)

If I Knew You Were Coming...

... I'd have baked a cake! So bake I did! :) oh, what a chore. (Not!)

My lovely folks and sister came over on Easter Sunday for a last-minute visit. We organised it the night before and my hubby and I insisted we would make lunch. And what is a visit to a country cottage without some cake! Lunch was gone before I could snap any photos but I managed to get some pics of the cakes before they were devoured...

First were some wee rocky road bites with milk chocolate, marshmallows and digestives. Second was a Victoria sponge that is not all it appears. I didn't have the right sized cake tin so had to make do with one bigger than I needed meaning the end product was too thin to split in two. And so a one-tiered version was born! I just slathered it in lemon butter icing and put on some lovely wafer flowers I got as a birthday present and bingo... Spring pastel Easter goodness! Happy weekend, all!

Time for Tea!

Next month, my lovely parents celebrate 40 years of marriage. Wow! I'm so proud of them and their wonderful, inspirational marriage. But how could I show them? Ah ha... Handmade!

I thought really hard about what to make that they could big share and enjoy and since I was practically raised as a tea Jenny, I thought a tea cosy was perfect. Someone had one made for my hubby and me for our wedding last year and we adore it and use it every day.

So here goes... I didn't have a pattern so drew round our tea cosy and cut out two outer pieces, two lining pieces and two bits of batting. I then did some freehand machine embroidery on a heart shape I cut out (embroider before cutting shape or it won't fit in your hoop!).

This weekend I have to sew it all together. I'm thinking of adding another heart on the back with 'since 1973' embroidered on it. Will post more pics as soon as it's done but here is the progress in the meantime...